When I stopped to talk, they confirmed my suspicion — they were residents of “New Market,” the partially-completed, 754-unit residential apartment complex at Market and 10th Streets. NEMA has six Public bikes for residents to borrow at no charge.

NEMA brands itself as an “ultra-contemporary, highly-amenitized, tech-savvy rental community designed for San Francisco’s culture-driven lifestyle.” I don’t know if the bike fleet is a first in the city, but it’s certainly a great example of how developers can encourage residents to try biking in the city. (A Bay Area Bike Share station also sits across the street.)

“It’s great to see strong commitment to biking from one of Market Street’s largest residences,” said Paolo Cosulich-Schwartz, the SF Bicycle Coalition’s business and community program manager. “We applaud NEMA for going above and beyond in providing easy and convenient ways for their residents to bike in the city.”

Of course, it would’ve been nice if the development didn’t include 550 car parking spaces for its 754 units — a 0.7-to-1 ratio for a building that sits on top of a Muni Metro and BART station, not to mention the city’s busiest bicycling street. But the bikes are a nice touch.

A friend of mine who lives here says they are having a hard time renting units. It doesn’t surprise me that they are trying all kinds of perks to entice people.

coolbabybookworm

6 bikes for 754 units? 550 car spaces? It’s just greenwashing, plus they even offer valet service for the cars.

IHeartPandas

Aaron — I’m curious to know how many of those 550 parking spaces are actually rented out. It is not unusual for developers to overestimate the amount of parking demand.

Nema

The garage is a public garage, so it isn’t just for residents. There is a dearth of public parking in the neighborhood. Also, the entire project is finished on Feb 1, only a week away. The ‘valet’ service is a way to maximize the amount of space available for cars in the garage, since the valets are trained to make everything efficient. About the six bikes…..there are hundreds and hundreds of personal bikes stored in the Nema garage, not to mention a few dozen city bikes right outside on the street, so I think demand is appropriate for six bikes, but they will purchase as many as they need when the next few hundred residents move in.

Re: valets, I do know that the car valets at my office building are pretty skilled, so space-saving is real, but I’m curious about the bike parking:

What is the security situation? What style of racks are provided? How many car spots does “hundreds and hundreds” of bikes take up? How public and accessible are these spots for cyclists?

94103er

I guess ‘Nema’ addressed your question to some extent, tho no specifics. Certainly a good idea, opening up residential spaces to the public if demand is soft. But SFMTA should be careful to keep track of spaces so when any new safety proposal brings out the street-space-preserving foamers they can say ‘yeah whatever, park off-street then.’ [Ahem, Save Polk Street, ahem.]

IHeartPandas

I don’t know if I agree with “there is a dearth of public parking in the neighborhood.” Just look at all of the garages on this map in the Civic Center area:

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